Injuries and change of coaches have left Italy forward struggling to fulfil his own lofty ambitions Federico Chiesa hoped Euro 2024 would be a platform to relaunch his career. In a TV interview on the eve of the tournament, the Italy forward spoke wistfully of how a knee injury sustained within six months of helping his country win the previous edition had knocked him off course. “After Euro 2020 I had a chance to position myself among the top footballers in the world,” he said. “Instead I tore my cruciate ligament and had a long period of rehabilitation. My objective is to get back among the very best.” It did not happen this summer. Chiesa played well in Italy’s opener, a 2-1 win over Albania, but struggled along with the rest of his teammates as the Azzurri were dominated by Spain. Benched for the final group game, against Croatia, he failed to make a mark after returning to the starting XI for the last-16 loss to Switzerland. Continue reading...

The holders were meekly disposed of by Switzerland in the last 16 and now a root-and-branch review is required Berlin, the city where they won a World Cup in 2006, has a special place in Italy’s footballing imagination. The prospect of returning for a last-16 tie at Euro 2024 was so thrilling it caused one commentator to trip over his tongue. Fabio Caressa, whose breathless repetition of “goal by [Fabio] Grosso!” became almost as iconic as that player’s semi-final strike 18 years ago, spluttered for a moment after Mattia Zaccagni’s equaliser against Croatia on Monday and briefly was unable to speak. Caressa had no such trouble finding his words, on Saturday night, after the Azzurri were eliminated by a 2-0 defeat to Switzerland. “The way we played tonight was unacceptable,” said Caressa during a post-match discussion on the Italian broadcaster Sky Sport. “We have to be able to say that. This match was unwatchable … this is not the level of our national team.” Continue reading...

In hindsight – and really, only in hindsight – this was how it was always going to end. We still believed, and they still believed, because this was Italy, and for all their foibles and frailties, that name and that crown still count for something. But scarcely can a crown have weighed more heavily. The defending champions are out, and most crushingly they barely threw a punch in the process. By the end, perhaps the most damning indictment of Luciano Spalletti’s team was that it didn’t even feel like a shock. Switzerland were not just better but braver, not just quicker but slicker, squeezing Italy’s weak spots with a sadistic relish, Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas with the goals either side of half-time. Italy were overwhelmed for the first hour of this game, and by the last half-hour, when they were finally able to string a few passes together, who cared? Continue reading...

Manager has several team choices to make for Switzerland tie after uncertain group-stage campaign To watch Luciano Spalletti speak at the end of Italy’s draw against Croatia felt like being pitched into an alternate timeline. Outside, on the pitch at Leipzig Stadium, there had been joy and relief for the Azzurri after Mattia Zaccagni’s 98th-minute equaliser secured progress to Euro 2024’s knockout phase. Inside, at the press conference, there was the sort of prickly postmortem you might expect after early elimination. In a series of monologues, Spalletti railed against perceived critics. When one journalist, Dario Ricci, asked whether the decision to change formation to a 3-5-2 had been influenced by a “pact” with players, the manager accused him of sharing leaked information from the changing room. Continue reading...

Defeat could mean early elimination for ItalyCroatia must win to have chance of progress The Italy centre-back Alessandro Bastoni has promised that they will cast fear to one side when they try to avert the embarrassment of an early exit from Euro 2024. A defeat against Croatia would almost certainly mean the reigning champions have to sweat on the shakedown of third-place finishers, with the chances high that more than four teams will finish on three points. They could even finish bottom of Group B if Albania simultaneously record an unlikely win against Spain, who outplayed Luciano Spalletti’s side on Thursday. It promises to be a knife-edge evening given only a win will do for their opponents and Bastoni believes a no-regrets approach will help banish any lingering disappointment. Continue reading...

Defending champions were obliterated by Spain but head coach will not be deterred from his ambitious vision Luciano Spalletti wanted his Italy team to make memories against Spain. “We all have our stories we like to share,” he said pre-game. “The players will see when they get to my age; they will need tales of their own to tell. This is a game that could give them one.” Those players came away with a horror story. Spain obliterated the defending champions, a 1-0 scoreline greatly understating their superiority. Perhaps one day Giovanni Di Lorenzo will get some mileage from recounting the time he was run ragged by a young Nico Williams, and Riccardo Calafiori might laugh about the own goal he scored in his fourth Italy appearance. Right now, their focus will be on changing their fortunes at this tournament. Continue reading...

Luis de la Fuente had described Spain v Italy as a clásico, a game that could easily be a final; watching this, he might have been half right. The team he coaches beat Italy by an own goal, scored by Riccardo Calafiori, to win the Group of Death with a match to spare but that doesn’t tell the story, nor begin to express the way they took Italy apart. The surprise was not that Luciano Spalletti’s side had lost here but that they did so narrowly, somehow alive to the last. Spain are in the next round; if they continue to play like this, they will surely go further too. Reaching the final, on this evidence, is no fantasy. The concern may be that a destruction so complete did not deliver a more comfortable victory, but what a performance this was, 20 shots fired off, 50 attacks launched, and illustrious opponents taken to pieces from the first minute to the last, when Ayoze Pérez came on and twice almost made it two. One would have to do, somehow. Continue reading...

Updates from the 8pm BST kick-off in GelsenkirchenRead Euro 2024 Daily | Player interactive | Email Scott “We wear Giorgio Armani. We’ll go out there in our Sunday best. And we’ll be willing to actually scuff up our beautiful suits if required.” Italy coach Luciano Spalletti there, with a none-more-Italian response to being asked whether his team are prepared to mix it tonight if needs be. The elegant threads on display in Gelsenkirchen confirm the first part of the bargain has been kept … … so it just remains to be seen if Italy’s play can be as stylish, and whether tonight’s match between two old enemies descends into the rough-house. Here’s hoping! / Won’t somebody think of the kids? [delete according to preference] Though as characteristically chic as Italy’s 2024 duds are, they can never ever be quite as stylish as the 1982 cut. They just can’t, and we don’t write the rules. Continue reading...

Inter midfielder’s partnership with Jorginho is earning media plaudits after Euro 2024 win over Albania Nicolò Barella did not relish being reminded he has scored more international goals than any other player in Italy’s squad at Euro 2024. “That worries me a bit,” he said when the detail was put to him at the end of the 2-1 win against Albania on Saturday. “It means I’m getting old.” At 27, Barella is hardly in the twilight of his career. There are plenty of older players representing the Azzurri in Germany, and yet only one outfielder, Jorginho, has been capped more times. The Arsenal player made his 55th Italy appearance against Albania. Barella is on 54. Continue reading...

Italy’s title defence is alive and well for now. Expectations around Luciano Spalletti’s new-look side have been low but this win over the tournament’s rank outsiders, achieved despite a monumental scare inside the opening minute, was ultimately conducted with a familiar air of authority. Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolò Barella stepped up when demanded with decisive interventions in a remarkable opening quarter and the remainder was a successful exercise in the kind of game management that once seemed a national pastime. Such a narrow margin of defeat may yet prove useful to Albania’s hopes of scraping third place in the group of death. If that proves unattainable they will, at least, depart with something to remember them by. Nedim Bajrami’s emphatic finish was the fastest goal in European Championship history and lifted the roof from a stadium that has surely never hosted anything like the fervent Albanian influx that descended here. Continue reading...

Luciano Spalletti’s views on games consoles, rather than his tactics, have dominated buildup to opener against Albania The six football “commandments” pinned to the whiteboard at Italy’s Coverciano training base before they departed for Germany made no mention of PlayStations or headphones. What they listed instead was a series of guiding principles for how the European champions should defend their title on the pitch. 1) Continuous pressing. 2) Control the play (ball management). 3) Tied together (distances between teammates: short, close). 4) Ferocious reaggression (when the ball is lost). 5) Recomposition (get back to your places). 6) Order, study, and prepare (to get back to pressing). Continue reading...

The Italian defender left Juventus for LAFC in 2020. With his playing career winding down, his move to MLS has laid the tracks for what comes next At 6.07 pm on a chilly, stormy Saturday in central Ohio, Giorgio Chiellini reached a crossroads that no professional athlete can avoid. The 39-year-old center-back, who has played for Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC since July 2022, must now decide whether to continue a career that featured numerous team and personal honors for Juventus and Italy. Continue reading...

Azzurri scrape into Euro 2024 finals with goalless drawThree Sweden fans went to Brussels. Only one came back 8 min The young centre-back Buongiorno is booked for pulling back Dovbyk, who was galloping away from him down the right. 7 min: Great chance for Barella! Italy should be ahead. They took a short corner on the left, with the ball eventually crossed beyond the far post. Zaniolo headed it back across goal and Barella, eight yards out, miskicked a half-volley over the bar. Continue reading...

The midfielder is prone to crying, but against Milan his emotions proved that he can guide the Bianconeri to title hopes Manuel Locatelli never has been one to hold back the tears. He sobbed after he scored his first Serie A goal back in 2016, when he became a European champion with Italy in 2021 and again when injury forced him out of a game against Inter last year. As Giorgio Chiellini brought down the curtain on his own 17 seasons at Juventus, he noted: “Locatelli has been crying since yesterday. I told him to stop.” It happened again yesterday, Locatelli weeping into the arms of Daniele Rugani after delivering the Bianconeri a win over his former club Milan at San Siro. Juventus had struggled early on against opponents who began the weekend on top of the Serie A table, before a red card to Malick Thiaw on the brink of half-time shifted the balance in their favour. Locatelli finally broke the deadlock with a deflected strike in the 63rd minute. Continue reading...